France captain Antoine Dupont has urged his side to guard against complacency after they moved within two matches of a first Six Nations title and Grand Slam since 2010.
Dupont’s side swept aside bogey team Scotland with a thumping 36-17 victory at Murrayfield this past Saturday.
With the victory, the French continued their unbeaten run in this year’s Six Nations and remain on top of the table, with two more games to play.
“We’re very satisfied with this victory because it’s very difficult to win at Murrayfield, but we still have two matches to play and we have to remain cautious,” said Dupont, whose side ran in six tries to overwhelm a Scotland team who thwarted their title ambitions in 2020 and 2021.
Having already overcome Italy and Ireland at home, France head to Wales on 11 March, with the chance of clinching a title and Grand Slam against England in Paris eight days later.
“We haven’t won the tournament for twelve years and we have to aim for that,” added Dupont, who set up the opening try for giant lock Paul Willemse with a blistering break.
“But we have to make sure we are not complacent. We have to be rigorous.”
France are now on a six-match winning streak which includes their stunning 40-25 victory over New Zealand in Paris in November.
“In international rugby, what is important is to win matches,” said head coach Fabien Galthie.
“We have to win and each victory is one more brick that we put on the wall that we’re trying to build.
“However, losses allow us to learn a lot and what we experienced here two years ago helped us a lot today.”
Asked about his team’s ruthless counter-attacking, the former France captain and scrumhalf said: “Rugby is a transition game. That is what we have worked on consistently – and also how to use our qualities, the intuition we have to allow the players to shift quickly from defence to attack.
“You can see in our training sessions we work on this transition game. You could see that today. There was quality in our decision-making and great carrying of the ball.”
© Agence France-Presse
